My Name is Myriads, and I’m a rather quiet Beastmaster on the Phoenix Server who got the crazy idea into his head to solo Blue Mage from 1 to 75. I did. And on the way with help from lots of friends I learned all of my spells.

Like all of us here, finding where you need to go, and what sort of party and items you may need to hunt a specific monster, can take a lot of work. And it often costs precious exp also. I used a lot of online forums and sites to learn from. To me it was fun. But often information was hard to come by.

That's... disturbingly in-depth. And this is coming from the ****-retentive CoP guide writer. If only this had come out a few weeks ago when I was in the process of tracking down the dozen or so spells I was lacking! Gah.

I didn't solo Voracious Trunk until level 73, I believe. For soloing Voracious Trunk it is very important that you have access to Leave because the pets will die too quickly and there won't be enough mobs available to charm unless you let them respawn with full HP by Leaving them.

The other spells I mentioned I soloed at level 70. You just need to make sure you are at a spot with enough pets to charm in case they get killed by the mob. I typically liked to use Leeches when they were available. But also, keep in mind that the hate line is very, very thin since the pets are likely to be significantly lower level than the mob from which you are learning the spell. You don't really want to attack the mob yourself until you've dwindled its HP significantly with enough pets.

There is a way to pretty much guarantee a Dagger Wielding Aern before pulling. The ones near the entrance to Sea, if you have a level 75 with you, have the 75 /check the Aern. If it cons High Eva, it is a THF which means it will wield a dagger. The rest usually con neutral evasion. I found this to be very helpful as it only took 2 Aerns for me to learn Disseverment...

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Return1 argued with Mellowy and wrote:

Seriously, you won't be @#%^ing happy until SE releases a full sized Bahamut avatar you can @#%^ing ride and use to kill players that annoy you, one shot AV/PW/Shinryuu, and burn the FFXI nations to the @#%^ing ground for fun. All while actually restoring mp used instead of costing any.

great guide! i'm definitely planning to put it to use when i resume leveling blu. i would like to add that frightful roar is soloable. i did so at blu50 and even got a codex out of it for my efforts. all it took was shadows, yagudo drinks, and antidotes.

Thank you for all the kind comments. They are very appreciated. As I was working on this I often wondered if I was wasting my time. It's nice to see that it will be of value to folks.

Let me answer some of the questions above.

Deadweight: I have updated Frightful Roar to reflect the solo information you have provided.

ImmortalAlchemist: I have updated Disseverment to include the /check trick you pointed out. Great tip! and exactly the sort of thing I want in the Hunting grounds.

EntropyMaker: A question. Which camp did you solo the 4 AU Beastmen spells at. I'd want to include that information in the update. Also can you detail how you handled the Marid and the Chigos solo? To make the Hunting Grounds useful i need details! :-)

ElegantMayhem: You asked about how I soloed my BLU. I went from 1-72 as BLU/WHM. Goblin Pets were my main Prey. Life became quite nice after I got Zephyr Mantle at 65 that made things very safe. Once I hit 72 it was /BST time and Flamingos vs Pots in Sky. Amazing exp, and very simple.

A few in e-mail people have asked why the site is so... bland. That is by design, to make the sites bandwidth calls light on the host, and to also keep the clutter down for the users. I wanted people to be able to load a page fast and reach the info they wanted.

The Hunting Grounds is very much a living work, and it will be updated as all of you, the Blue Mage community provide feedback. If you have info to add, be detailed in your descriptions!

I'm psyched by the expansion sneak peeks we got today. Ochu and Cockatrice probably will mean new spells for us!

Warm-Up: I camped this spell at H-11 in Wajaom Woodlands, around level 68. This is a common BST leveling spot, but there happens to be a Mamool in a little niche there (along with a raptor). Be careful when pulling the mamool, you don't want to aggro the raptor. There are plenty of pets to use; I recommend the attercops, but you can use pephredos in a pinch. You could even Charm puks if you are daring. But I would stick with attercops (be careful, they link). I simply put pet after pet on the Mamool until the Mamool is nearly dead, THEN I finish it off in hopes of learning the spell. It is best if you put a very large distance between yourself and the Mamool when you are getting ready to charm a new pet, this will allow you more time to recharm if your charm fails. Also, keeping Zephyr Mantle up (casting outside of hate range of the Mamool) is highly recommended.

Firespit: For this spell I camped in Wajaom Woodlands, the specific coordinates I don't recall, but it was in the southwestern part of the map (around the Mamook entrance). I was around level 68, and to be honest, I don't remember what pets I used, but I'm positive there are easily charmable ones spread throughout there (possibly treant saplings, attercops, etc.). But I pretty much followed the same procedure as with learning Warm-Up. Be careful of pulling the mage type mamools because this area has a high density of mamools, and you would not want to link any.

Diamondhide: This spell I camped in Bhaflau Thickets at level 70. It is likely possible to solo without Leave, but you may need to charm Tigers as well, if you run out of leeches (Tigers have some charm resistance, which increases the risk of doing this). I pulled trolls from F-9 and brought them to G-8. Using leech pets, I was able to slowly deplete the Troll's HP. However, it could take a long time to kill because of continuous use of Diamondhide. Not to mention the troll I was fighting was a PLD, and could cure itself.

Voracious Trunk: Learning this spell solo is perhaps the most challenging, and quite risky. I believe I was level 73 or so when I did it. Having Leave is essential for soloing this spell, because otherwise you will run out of pets. What I did was equipped at least two high damage spells (Hysteric Barrage, Disseverment, Frenetic Rip). In addition, I equipped the auto-refresh trait and also used a Vermillion cloak with MP refresh Sanction. This is because you have very little opportunity to rest MP while soloing this spell. You may want to consider equipping a sleep spell or two, as well, just in case something goes wrong. You can try learning this spell at basically any of the pond areas in Wajaom or Bhaflau that has leeches to charm.

Now as for the procedure of fighting the marids, I would charm a pet and sic it on a Marid (make sure it is not a Grand Marid, because other marids will link with it). You will notice that your pet is going to be killed quickly by the powerful marid. Be ready to Leave your current pet, charm a new pet, and put it on the Marid immediately. Do not let your pet die or you will likely run out of pets to put on the Marid. Always have Zephyr Mantle up (run out of hate range to recast it), because the Marids hit pretty hard. And for the first 5 or 6 times the Marid performs a TP attack, it will spawn a Chigoe which will immediately come after you. This is why you equip 2 high damage, quick casting spells. The Chigoe should die in one or two casts. And after 5 or 6 chigoes have spawned, you won't have to worry about anymore spawning when the Marid performs a TP attack. Note that the hate line here will be incredibly fickle. You do not want to gain any hate other than by putting your pet onto the Marid. A lot of times the Marid would take a swing at me during the whole ordeal (which is why Zephyr Mantle will be useful).

I got Voracious Trunk last night as a 72BLU/36BST. I duo'd it with my RDM friend and found that this could be solo'd if done correctly.

A blu/bst could probably solo this at 72 via Magnetite Cloud/Mysterious light for kiting and using various pets to kill along with Disseverment for DoT.

Red Kissers (Decent Challenge) make great pets, as they took off about 15% of the Marids (Very Tough) health before being defeated. I didn't have any problems charming the mobs with Errant Gear equiped. After the Marid defeated my pet, my friend would cast Gravity on it which made it move a lot slower than it already does while I would seek out and charm another pet. I kept Stoneskin and Zephyr Mantle up at all times for Chigoe Spawns. I also used Disseverment as additional DoT (See Below). All in all, it took about 10 minutes to kill and I went through 1 Red Kisser and 5 Lesser Colibri and I went 1/1 on it.

* After getting my spell, I casted Disseverment on another Marid just to see how long the spell lasted. It ended up taking about 15% of health away before wearing off. So if you plan on soloing it, this spell gives you great DoT.

* My friend had Crimson Cruises which made her pretty much untouchable as she had to kite sometimes when she got hate from casting gravity.

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Return1 argued with Mellowy and wrote:

Seriously, you won't be @#%^ing happy until SE releases a full sized Bahamut avatar you can @#%^ing ride and use to kill players that annoy you, one shot AV/PW/Shinryuu, and burn the FFXI nations to the @#%^ing ground for fun. All while actually restoring mp used instead of costing any.

Lol, told you Myriads. The community would love that site. {Congratulations!} on your success, and enjoy. More than likely, I'll be meritting with you more, and look forward to traveling with you learning new spells (I'm sure we'll get some new spells from WOTG). ^^

*Like me, you should expect to start getting many /tells in-game now from random people. I enjoy it, and I think you will too.*

You can actually tell when it is going to be foggy before it actually rolls out onto the land. If you stand in the Safehold at the bottom of H-6 on the map facing north, the fog will actually roll into the Safehold before doing so outside. The air will start to look a little hazy, and you can tell as early as 2:00. Once this happens you can go out to the marked camps on the map on the guide.

As far as getting the spell, I'll basically paraphrase what I wrote in another thread. What I have found to work best is if you have access to Filamented Hold (Sprout Smack works too), use that spell on the Clusters, and keep it on them. The clusters have a tendency to use Refueling a lot more in an attempt to overwrite the slow status.

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Return1 argued with Mellowy and wrote:

Seriously, you won't be @#%^ing happy until SE releases a full sized Bahamut avatar you can @#%^ing ride and use to kill players that annoy you, one shot AV/PW/Shinryuu, and burn the FFXI nations to the @#%^ing ground for fun. All while actually restoring mp used instead of costing any.

I have camped Refueling in Lufaise Meadows before. This is my experience.

First of all, I recommend camping in the little path at (K-11). When fog weather comes up, (Which only has a chance of appearing between 2:00 and 9:00, when there is no other weather currently) there will be a Cluster that spawns in (J-11). I've seen it spawn and wander pretty much throughout that whole block on the map. Widescan is helpful here.

I like this camp, because you can also fight another Cluster mob! It spawns near western (K-11), where the little path you're camping at opens up into the wide area.

However, I found fog weather to appear too rarely. I found another blu in the area if they needed Refueling. In the end we ended up soloing clusters outside the Halvung Staging Point for each other. (He was 75 smn, I was 75 rdm.)

Also, I just want to say that your site has already helped me learn some spells. It's very helpful and detailed. Thanks!

Awesome guide! 5 stars without a shadow of a doubt. I'd also like to point out for Sandspray, the camp that BLMs use in Aydeewa against the ranger types will often produce Sandspray, since they do not engage the BLM and are far enough away so that is the only weapon skill that will be used. Can be solod around level 64 by a BLM.

JackCrowley: For the cannonball soloing can you describe how a typical fight would go for you? What subjob and spells you'd use and problems you encountered? I'd assume you would alternate Pinecone and Blastbomb but did you do anything else? Also was the location in the tunnel leading up to the Body Slam camp?

For the Spells marked with None as stat mods, I was operating off the Translated Studio Gobi information. There seem to be a number that they found nothing changed.

It was the entrance to halvung next to the flan camp. I subbed nin and kitted it up and down the entrance, just before the lava lake. you can pull the 1 wamouracampa through the gate, but watch out for the 2 bombs that are right there. you can still melee it, just keep metallic body up so you can cast without getting interrupted when your shadows are down. you could probably dot and bind/grav, but I was lv70 and the only decent dot we have is disseverment. having vermin killer wouldnt hurt either. you will need juices, auto-refresh, and sanction refresh. I was also thinking that binding it and running out of melee range might provoke it to use cannonball.

yes, there is a spot at F6 on the second map, but if youre coming from the staging point then E8 on the first map is closer. I had to go back and forth a couple times before I learned it because of the long respawn time.

One correction I'd like to make: You do not need to break a Merrow's weapon for it to use Tail Slap. I learned it just earlier today, and many of the uses were when it still had a weapon.

Edit: Thought of another correction. The higher-level Qutrub are not "annoying to get to." They're right near a staging point (I can never remember which one ><;) and much easier to get to than the lower-level ones. This is not to say that they're necessarily the best choice, as, of course, they're higher-level.

Once again I want to thank people for all the support I've seen, and the information you have all supplied. I realy want the guide to be as useful as possible for folks, and I'll work to add new camps and fight stratagies as you share them.

I've only noticed one qualm: In your Warm-Up "Obtaining the Spell strategy, you state, when fighting Mamool Ja Fighters...

Quote:

Party members should have a way to erase Warm-Up, so a White Mage is called for.

I'm assuming you mean Dispel, which actually calls for a Red Mage, or a Corsair with Dark Shot, or... well, a Blue Mage with Blank Gaze or Geist Wall. :)

Otherwise, I've bookmarked your link and plan on using it. Good job!

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Atrexis of Hades (formerly of MidgardSormr) There is no 'I' in 'team;' however, there is an 'M' and an 'E'. [75DRG|66PLD|55WHM|49SCH|42SAM|40BST|39BLM|39WAR|37THF|37DNC|34RNG] Bastok Rank 9 AF: DRG [09/10/06], PLD [02/18/07] Runic Portal[6/6] R.I.P. Stormtech and Bjargmundr

An anagram for Walker Texas Ranger is KARATE WRANGLER ***. I don't know what that is, but it sounds AWESOME.

i love this guide, and i have a suggestion for spell camping. clicking on the link for e-mail doesnt work for me so i gotta write it here

metallic body is much more easily camped in zeruhn mines, at the small pond near overseer makarim. the other places you mentioned are covered in goblin and other beastmen aggro, but the zeruhn mines location is completely aggro-free. between 3 and 4 crabs spawn there and if your camping this spell at level 3 like i did, the no goblins and beastmen can be a godsend.